MyCareer.com.au

Spam hits dangerous levels

Three out of every four emails are spam, according to a survey by internet security firm MessageLabs. Unwanted e-mails in May surged to an all-time high of as much as three-quarters of all e-mail traffic.

MessageLabs said of some 909 million e-mails scanned at its customers, 691.5 million were intercepted as spam, or 76 percent.

The firm said the percentage of virus-infected e-mails held steady at around 9.1 percent.

"E-mail-borne viruses have plagued businesses for years, whereas spam has become the primary pain point only recently and now far surpasses the number of virus-infected e-mails," said Mark Sunner, chief technology officer at MessageLabs.

"In spite of a convergence of attack techniques, the growth patterns remain different. Spam levels follow a constant upwards curve while viral threats remain steady. The exception is when volumes spike during major outbreaks such as MyDoom or virus wars break out between the authors."

A separate report by Nucleus Research found that the average cost of spam per year per employee more than doubled from the previous year to $US1,934.

That report found the average employee receives nearly 7,500 spam messages per year, up from 3,500 in 2003.

It also found that companies using spam filters report that on average they are able to filter only 20 percent of the incoming spam, down from 26 percent in 2003.

"As spam continues to spiral out of control, so do the associated costs to organizations, and weak legislation has not had a strong impact on reducing the amount of spam clogging inboxes every day," said Rebecca Wettemann, Nucleus Research's vice president for research.

"Filtering technologies are doing their best to lessen the impact ... but the exponential growth of spam limits their effectiveness."